The Benefits of Exercise in Weight Control

The Benefits of Exercise in a Weight Control Program

The benefits of exercise are many, from producing physically fit bodies to providing an outlet for fun and socialization. When added to a weight control program these benefits take on increased significance.
We already have noted that proper exercise can help control weight by burning excess body fat.
It also has two other body-trimming advantages 1) exercise builds muscle tissue and muscle uses calories up at a faster rate than body fat; and 2) exercise helps reduce inches and a firm, lean body looks slimmer even if your weight remains the same.
Remember, fat does not "turn into" muscle, as is often believed. Fat and muscle are two entirely different substances and one cannot become the other. However, muscle does use calories at a faster rate than fat which directly affects your body's metabolic rate or energy requirement.
Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy required to sustain the body's functions at rest and it depends on your age, sex, body size, genes and body composition. People with high levels of muscle tend to have higher BMRs and use more calories in the resting stage.
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To read the full article, go http://health-vip.cn/archives/articals/111.htm

5 Tips on Choosing a Directory for Submission

Find out if the directory is indexed by the topmost search engines. If it has not been cached by search engines for a long period of time, there is definitely no point in submitting your links on it.

Established, popular directories can bring in traffic and also the kind of back links that'll actually foster your site's optimisation process.

When you submit your site into categories, make sure that the directory in question offers a unique category structure that helps in better organisation of info. This will help you in locating relevant information in quick time.

If a directory uses the 'rel=no follow' attribute for your link, search engines will actually never follow that link to your site. Therefore, such a directory will be of absolutely no help in your optimisation campaign. Even redirects are usually not considered for back links by search engines.

Always check the outbound links on the directory's pages. This will give you a good insight into how helpful such a submission would be for your site.

Follow the last 5 tips, you will sure get a good result!

From: http://jack-fx.com/tech-article/104.htm

Add a DotNetKicks button for your WordPress blog

You’ll probably notice I’ve added the DotNetKicks “Kick it” icon to the bottom of each post.  For those of you who aren’t aware, DotNetKicks is a relatively new social linking site, like Digg, but specific to .NET programming.  Cool!  This blog is about 70% about .NET programming too.   It is really cool!

For performance reason, I do not want to use plugin or other ‘big’ thing. After google it, I found a really simple method. Open you them(single.php), and add the following html code, then you will got the DotNetKicks button for each post.

<a href="http://www.dotnetkicks.com/kick/?url=<?php echo get_permalink() ?>"><img src="http://www.dotnetkicks.com/Services/Images/KickItImageGenerator.ashx?url=<?php echo get_permalink() ?>" border="0" alt="kick it on DotNetKicks.com" /></a>

Is it simple and cool? If you want to add other social linking sites, also follow this way!

from http://jack-fx.com/tech-article/103.htm

Tell you how to Avoid Brain Freeze

This just in: Eating smaller bites of ice cream is the key to avoiding the highly dreaded ice cream headache, a.k.a. brain freeze.

This critical finding, which was published in the December issue of British Medical Journal, was made by 13-year-old Maya Kaczorowski, who carried out her experiment on fellow middle school classmates in Hamilton, Canada.

Half of Dalewood Middle School's 145 students were given the difficult task of eating two scoops of vanilla ice cream in less than five seconds.

The second group was instructed to eat the same amount slowly enough to still have some left after 30 seconds.

Twenty-seven percent of the hurried eaters developed an ice cream headache - more than the ''cautious'' eaters.

Interestingly, cold weather did not affect the incidence of headache, which appears to be triggered when the cold substance touches the roof of the mouth.

By the way, Maya received an A for her groundbreaking study and plans to conduct similar research using other flavors of ice cream.

FROM - http://health-vip.cn/archives/articals/110.htm

A Programming hint: Prefer Small, Simple Functions

As experienced programmers, in whatever language we favored before C#, we internalized several practices for developing more efficient code. Sometimes what worked in our previous environment is counterproductive in the .NET environment. This is very true when you try to hand-optimize algorithms for the C# compiler. Your actions often prevent the JIT compiler from more effective optimizations. Your extra work, in the name of performance, actually generates slower code. You're better off writing the clearest code you can create. Let the JIT compiler do the rest. One of the most common examples of premature optimizations causing problems is when you create longer, more complicated functions in the hopes of avoiding function calls. Practices such as hoisting function logic into the bodies of loops actually harm the performance of your .NET applications. It's counterintuitive, so let's go over all the details.

This chapter's introduction contains a simplified discussion of how the JIT compiler performs its work. The .NET runtime invokes the JIT compiler to translate the IL generated by the C# compiler into machine code. This task is amortized across the lifetime of your program's execution. Instead of JITing your entire application when it starts, the CLR invokes the JITer on a function-by-function basis. This minimizes the startup cost to a reasonable level, yet keeps the application from becoming unresponsive later when more code needs to be JITed. Functions that do not ever get called do not get JITed. You can minimize the amount of extraneous code that gets JITed by factoring code into more, smaller functions rather than fewer larger functions.

For detail, go http://jack-fx.com/tech-article/102.htm

Interesting topic: Web Hosting: Ideas on Forum Activity

After choosing a niche, domain, hosting, and software, many forum owners think they don't have to do anything else to make their forum become popular. This is not the case. The popular phrase, “If you build it, they will come” does not apply to online communities. You must work to get your name out there and attract members. There are several popular methods of doing this.
The first method I will talk about is a very common and popular method: post exchanging. Basically, you agree with another forum owner to post x amount of posts on their forum and in return they will post the same amount on yours. This is in no way a long term solution but it makes your forum appear active and more appealing to guests who might have a genuine interest in joining. Its easy and helps both parties out. The problem some forum owners who use this method face is using it as their sole source of generating activity. You have to attract real visitors if you want your post exchanges to pay off. A similar method to post exchanges is paid posting. Personally I don't have any experience in paying for posts but its a popular service. You pay a certain amount of money and in return a writer or writers will join your forum and post a certain amount of times. I prefer paid posting because it doesn't take up a lot of my time and is free.
Another way to attract users is to submit your forum to directories. And when I say this I mean a lot of directories. You have to get many links out there on different sites for it to be worth it. There are many free directories out there specifically for forums and also specifically for your niche, and there are also many general directories. It is worth it to submit to as many as you can to get your link out there and get backlinks.
A great way to attract more users is to place a link to your forum in your signature at other, related forums. And don't just put the URL, put the forums name or topic as the anchor text. If you make quality, helpful posts people will generally click your link if they are interested in the topic. Forum signatures is probably the easiest and yet best ways to get users to your forum.
My personal favorite way to advertise is to use social media websites such as digg and del.icio.us. I submit many threads to digg and it generates a lot of traffic if your thread is interesting and unique. Remember that digg is mostly technical related though so not all forums can take advantage of it. Other sites like these include Netscape, reddit, and StumbleUpon.
The final way of generating activity in forums that I will discuss is having a contest. A big contest can bring tons of users to your forum. Some may join with the original intention of only joining to win the contest and then leaving, but if you provide unique and interesting content while they are actively posting you may change many of their minds. Contests are probably the best way to generate significant amounts of activity in your forums. If the prizes are good enough then they can guarantee many new posters to join your boards.

From http://jack-fx.com/tech-article/100.htm

ASP.NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010 Development Overview & Dynamic Data

ASP.NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010 Development Overview &amp; Dynamic Data

Last week at the Mix conference in Las Vegas we released a whitepaper that contain a list of many of the items that we are adding to ASP.NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010. The paper provides an overview of what we expect to be in the first beta release (do not ask for timeframes as we do not have a published date yet). You can view the whitepaper here in both HTML and download form: http://www.asp.net/learn/whitepapers/aspnet40/

Lasr week we also released a new preview of Dynamic Data. You can download the preview 3 of Dynamic Data from this link: http://aspnet.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=24887. This preview really rocks and contains the QueryBlockExtender mentioned in the whitepaper above it also includes a new DomainDataSouce for accessing business layers that are created from the new .NET RIA Services CTP that was also released at Mix. Check it out and I hope to blog on it soon.

from http://jack-fx.com/tech-article/99.htm 

What Kind of Exercise?

Although any kind of physical movement requires energy (calories), the type of exercise that uses the most energy is aerobic exercise. The term "aerobic" is derived from the Greek word meaning "with oxygen." Jogging, brisk walking, swimming, biking, cross-country skiing and aerobic dancing are some popular forms of aerobic exercise.
Aerobic exercises use the body's large muscle groups in continuous, rhythmic, sustained movement and require oxygen for the production of energy. When oxygen is combined with food (which can come from stored fat) energy is produced to power the body's musculature. The longer you move aerobically, the more energy needed and the more calories used. Regular aerobic exercise will improve your cardiorespiratory endurance, the ability of your heart, lungs, blood vessels and associated tissues to use oxygen to produce energy needed for activity. You'll build a healthier body while getting rid of excess body fat.
In addition to the aerobic exercise, supplement your program with muscle strengthening and stretching exercises. The stronger your muscles, the longer you will be able to keep going during aerobic activity, and the less chance of injury.

How Much? How Often?

Experts recommend that you do some form of aerobic exercise at least three times a week for a minimum of 20 continuous minutes. Of course, if that is too much, start with a shorter time span and gradually build up to the minimum. Then gradually progress until you are able to work aerobically for 20-40 minutes. If you need to lose a large amount of weight, you may want to do your aerobic workout five times a week.
It is important to exercise at an intensity vigorous enough to cause your heart rate and breathing to increase. How hard you should exercise depends to a certain degree on your age, and is determined by measuring your heart rate in beats per minute.
The heart rate you should maintain is called your target heart rate, and there are several ways you can arrive at this figure. The simplest is to subtract your age from 220 and then calculate 60 to 80 percent of that figure. Beginners should maintain the 60 percent level, more advanced can work up to the 80 percent level. This is just a guide however, and people with any medical limitations should discuss this formula with their physician.
You can do different types of aerobic activities, say walking one day, riding a bike the next.
Make sure you choose an activity that can be done regularly, and is enjoyable for you. The important thing to remember is not to skip too many days between workouts or fitness benefits will be lost. If you must lose a few days, gradually work back into your routine.

FROM http://health-vip.cn/archives/articals/108.htm

Tips on Forum Advertising

Forums or message boards are a great way to reach like minded people in the same area of business your in, a growing number of business owners use forums to promote their slaves, their businesses, products and services, forums provide individuals and business with a unique opportunity to get involved with a community, which with time and dedication builds you a reputation which can be smartly used to market what you have to offer.

Some mistakenly think that forum advertising is limited to posting your AD in a specified forum, members and readers are less inclined to click on a topic if they don't know who the writer is, and they are even less encouraged to process to a website that this Ad mentions if the writer has not been contributing in the community.

I've seen a number of visitors to a forum come and go, post their Ad, disappear for a week, to come back and post another Ad, thinking that they are doing this an advertising campaign with repeating the same thing to probably tens of other forums, readers are not stupid, they can see that this members doesn't contribute, and he's only participating the Ad related forums.

The best way to gain the trust and confidence of the community is to contribute and share useful information, and never try to recommend yourself or your business in your posts, a simple link in your sig. will get clicked way more if you provide readers with something useful.

I personally and through interaction with other forumers know this for a fact, people are willing to give their business to someone offering free help with no expectations for rewards, than someone else heavily promoting himself.

Opening topics with your Ads is also a good thing, but don't make it the only thing that you do on a forum, here are some tips for you to follow when opening topics in general and when you open an Ad.

1- Make sure your topics are in the correct place on the forum, most forums have specific sub forums to open Ad related topics, look for them.

2- Never ever spam the forum with your Ad or try to bend the rules, if they have a sticky topic in the Ad forum, read it, it usually contains important information, lots of topics get deleted simply because the writer didn't bother to read the rules.

3- Your 1st topic shouldn't be an AD! would you trust someone with a 2 post count that has only posted Ads on a forum ? I wouldn't, and I know that most readers wont, so your really only wasting your time, and the time of the members reading your topics, which is another reason why they will most likely quit reading any of your future topics, you should contribute on the forum your posting in, introduce yourself and write about what you do, most forums have an introduction forum, readers are more likely to trust someone with a good post count, that has good comments and views and that has expressed a good knowledge in the topics he has contributed in on the forum.

FROM http://jack-fx.com/tech-article/95.htm

Helpful Tips and Suggestions for Starting Your Home Business

Starting a home business is a great way for many families to make a profit while still being able to spend time with their family. In addition to stay-at-home parents, a wide variety of other individuals are successfully starting their own home businesses. Starting a home business is an important and exciting adventure; however, there are helpful tips and precautions that can help to enhance the profits of your business. 

A helpful tip that many work-from-home individuals do not even consider when they first start a home business is the competition. Although you may be a great resume writer, there are ways for job seekers to obtain a free resume online and there may even be existing resume writers in your area. The number one way to ensure that your business will be unique to your area is by doing the proper research. Simply by completing an internet search or picking up the local phone book, you can determine if your business will have a large amount of area competition. If there are similar businesses in your area you should consider asking what their full service includes and any rates or fees.  If the existing business is high priced, you may still be able to operate a similar business by charging lower fees. 

Making sure that you are aware of local, state, and federal laws is not only a helpful tip, but it is required. It is possible to be fined or prosecuted for operating a business without being licensed or registered with your area officials. Before starting a home business, it is important that you fully understand any laws or guidelines that you may have to follow as a business owner. If you are unable to follow these rules, starting a home business may not be for you. You can learn about local laws or guidelines by contacting your local governing officials or by researching them over the internet. 

Using the internet is a helpful business tip. The internet can be used for obtaining information on how to start a home business or it can even be used to help maximize the profits of your existing one. There are a large number of online websites and message forums that are specifically designed for individuals who are interested in starting a home business. By visiting these websites or forums, you could receive helpful tips and business ideas. 

……

FROM: http://jack-fx.com/tech-article/94.htm

The Diet Connection and Calories

A balanced diet should be part of any weight control plan. A diet high in complex carbohydrates and moderate in protein and fat will complement an exercise program. It should include enough calories to satisfy your daily nutrient requirements and include the proper number of servings per day from the "basic four food groups": vegetables and fruits (4 servings), breads and cereals (4 servings), milk and milk products (2 - 4 depending on age) and meats and fish (2).
Experts recommend that your daily intake not fall below 1200 calories unless you are under a doctor's supervision. Also, weekly weight loss should not exceed two pounds.
Remarkable claims have been made for a variety of "crash" diets and diet pills. And some of these very restricted diets do result in noticeable weight loss in a short time. Much of this loss is water and such a loss is quickly regained when normal food and liquid intake is resumed. These diet plans are often expensive and may be dangerous. Moreover, they do not emphasize lifestyle changes that will help you maintain your desired weight. Dieting alone will result in a loss of valuable body tissue such as muscle mass in addition to a loss in fat.
How Many Calories
The estimates for number of calories (energy) used during a physical activity are based on experiments that measure the amount of oxygen consumed during a specific bout of exercise for a certain body weight.
The energy costs of activities that require you to move your own body weight, such as walking or jogging, are greater for heavier people since they have more weight to move. For example, a person weighing 150 pounds would use more calories jogging one mile than a person jogging alongside who weighs 115 pounds. Always check to see what body weight is referred to in caloric expenditure charts you use.

FROM: http://health-vip.cn/archives/articals/107.htm

Chosing Forum Software

Choosing the best forum software for you is critical to a new forum administrator about to start a community. While it may not be the key to your potential success, it can certainly help along the way. A forum or discussion board can be a very hard endeavor, but it can pay off in time with a large, loyal user database. But how do you choose the best software for you personally? Well, that’s when you must examine what you want and what your goals actually are.

Some things to consider:

What is my price range? How much am I willing to spend? What features are a necessity? Do I want forum modifications? Forum skins? There are several other questions you must consider, these are merely a few. With time you’ll get the answers, but it’s always best to plan.

In this article I’ll include a brief description and recommendation for the three leading forum software companies. From there on, it’s up to you to choose. Two are paid, one is free open source.  Keep in mind you’re not simply limited to these three options. There are scores of forum software systems out there of all sorts to fit your needs. Just try to find the one best for you.

The first sort of forum software I’ll discussion is Vbulletin. This is my personal favorite, so I might be a little biased. Anyway, you have two options as far as VB goes. You can buy the owned or leased license. Leased is $80 but is only good for one year - after that you have to renew it. Owned is owned - you can run it for life, but must pay a fee to get updates, which are often not necessary. I strongly recommend the owned license. Vbulletin has so many features, a huge user support system and a large amount of hacks and modifications over at vbulletin (dot) org. As far as I can tell, Vbulletin has every desired feature that other boards has. I would highly recommend this. The official website for vbulletin can be found at www.vbulletin.com.

The alternative paid forum software is Invision Power Board, or IPB for short. Invision Board started out as a free software but began licensing it’s product out later. While it may be cheaper than Vbulletin, in my opinion it doesn’t have as many or as good features. Still, if you’re willing to pay money for the software but not quite enough for vbulletin, you may want to consider Invision Power Board. The official website for Invision Power Board can be found at www.invisionpower.com.

The last forum software I am going to briefly outline is PHPBB. This stands for PHP - bulletin board. PHPBB is overall a decent open source software. However, it has been known to have numerous security holes, which is something you should definitely consider before devoting to this software. It has the basic features and a limited administration backend, but good user support. Plus, it’s free. The official website for PHPBB is www.phpbb.com.

Now, realize there are many more alternatives for forum software… perhaps hundreds. I recommend you shop around, compare, and price. See what you think would be best to get you started. This article was made merely to point you in the right direction. Good luck.

FROM: http://jack-fx.com/tech-article/93.htm

Exercise and Modern Living

One thing is certain. Most people do not get enough exercise in their ordinary routines. All of the advances of modern technology – from electric can openers to power steering – have made life easier, more comfortable and much less physically demanding. Yet our bodies need activity, especially if they are carrying around too much fat. Satisfying this need requires a definite plan, and a commitment. There are two main ways to increase the number of calories you expend:
1. Start a regular exercise program if you do not have one already.
2. Increase the amount of physical activity in your daily routine.
The best way to control your weight is a combination of the above. The sum total of calories used over time will help regulate your weight as well as keep you physically fit.
Active Lifestyles
Before looking at what kind of regular exercise program is best, let's look at how you can increase the amount of physical activity in your daily routine to supplement your exercise program.
• Recreational pursuits such as gardening on weekends, bowling in the office league, family outings, an evening of social dancing, and many other activities provide added exercise. They are fun and can be considered an extra bonus in your weight control campaign.
• Add more "action" to your day. Walk to the neighborhood grocery store instead of using the car. Park several blocks from the office and walk the rest of the way. Walk up the stairs instead of using the elevator; start with one flight of steps and gradually increase.
• Change your attitude toward movement. Instead of considering an extra little walk or trip to the files an annoyance, look upon it as an added fitness boost. Look for opportunities to use your body. Bend, stretch, reach, move, lift and carry. Time-saving devices and gadgets eliminate drudgery and are a bonus to mankind, but when they substitute too often for physical activity they can demand a high cost in health, vigor and fitness.
These little bits of action are cumulative in their effects. Alone, each does not burn a huge amount of calories. But when added together they can result in a sizable amount of energy used over the course of the day. And they will help improve your muscle tone and flexibility at the same time.

FROM:http://health-vip.cn/archives/articals/106.htm

Pingback

Pingback is one of three types of Linkbacks, it is a method for Web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring to their articles. Some weblog software, such as Movable Type, WordPress (such as this one, http://jack-fx.com ) and Community Server, support automatic pingbacks where all the links in a published article can be pinged when the article is published.

Here is an example: I publish an article at http://jack-fx.com, and then another one using WordPress, writes an artile with link(s) to my article. My weblog software (wordpress) will know it immediately. Is it cool?

Essentially, a Pingback is an XML-RPC request (not to be confused with an ICMP ping) sent from Site A to Site B. However, it also requires a link. When Site B receives the notification signal, it automatically goes back to Site A checking for the existence of a live incoming link. If that link exists, the Pingback is recorded successfully. This makes Pingbacks less prone to spam than Trackbacks. Pingback enabled resources must either use an X-Pingback header or contain a <link> element to the XML-RPC script.

Pingback

Pingback is one of three types of Linkbacks, it is a method for Web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring to their articles. Some weblog software, such as Movable Type, WordPress (such as this one, http://jack-fx.com ) and Community Server, support automatic pingbacks where all the links in a published article can be pinged when the article is published.

Here is an example: I publish an article at http://jack-fx.com, and then another one using WordPress, writes an artile with link(s) to my article. My weblog software (wordpress) will know it immediately. Is it cool?

Essentially, a Pingback is an XML-RPC request (not to be confused with an ICMP ping) sent from Site A to Site B. However, it also requires a link. When Site B receives the notification signal, it automatically goes back to Site A checking for the existence of a live incoming link. If that link exists, the Pingback is recorded successfully. This makes Pingbacks less prone to spam than Trackbacks. Pingback enabled resources must either use an X-Pingback header or contain a <link> element to the XML-RPC script.

Webmaster - Monetization of Gaming Websites

I see hundreds of new gaming related websites each year. Hardly two of those sites make it out of the first month from its creation.

There could be several reasons for this, not enough advertisement, not enough money to support the website, or just a lack of dedication to its cause. What I can do for all of you who need to make money to either keep your gaming site going or for those of you who just want to make a little money off it, pay attention:

Gaming websites must first be focused at a core group of people. You must pick exactly what game or console you want to focus on. If you are looking to create a gaming experience for more than one console, remember that all of your topics must be just as interesting, there is no half-assing in this process or else you’ll fail, miserably.

Create or pay for a layout which is unique from others. Gaming layouts are getting quite old these days, if you want to attract users, develop something unique, possibly a flash based site.

Content, CONTENT, content, I cannot stress enough, you need phenomenal CONTENT. Gamers who will visit your site will come for good content; they’ll want to know what is going on before anyone else has time to tell them. Those are the gamers that want to go out to their friends and say, guess what, not be the ones who are misinformed and are being told about all the new and cool features by others.

If you’ve got a design and your content down, you must design and maintain an interactive community. Now this, my friends, is where the true monetization process emerges. If you are able to find a message board, preferably Bulletin, you must bring in a core group of members. Active, regular posters who will be interested in staying. Your forum design should be unique and different, attracting a broad range of people. Once your community maintains an active state with its core members, you’ll see that people will start to come from out of no where. Why is this? Your content and your core members just helped you out.

Now if you want to truly monetize off the gaming website, your best bet is to establish a sponsorship with individual gaming websites. You may also want to partner with gaming leagues. If your website is booming because of its content, people will begin to realize that they can use your website to gain interest in theirs. They’ll ask you to be the host of their gaming leagues. For this, you’ll be paid. You could have tournaments which are sponsored, for several different online games. The winning person or clan would be awarded a prize, ultimately only raising the standards bar of your website higher.

You may also want to include advertisements in your forum from individual sponsors. You also may want to have a small gaming store where you can sell consoles, video games, hats with your logo on it, etc. These will all lead to profit. You must remember though, if you want to profit from anything related to a gaming based website, your content must be the substantial structure of your website. With all of this, I can say Good luck, and good night.

FROM:http://www.jack-fx.com/tech-articals/87.htm

Overweight or Overfat?

Overweight or Overfat?
Overweight and overfat do not always mean the same thing. Some people are quite muscular and weigh more than the average for their age and height. However, their body composition, the amount of fat versus lean body mass (muscle, bone, organs and tissue), is within a desirable range. This is true for many athletes. Others weigh an average amount yet carry around too much fat. In our society, however, overweight often implies overfat because excess weight is commonly distributed as excess fat. The addition of exercise to a weight control program helps control both body weight and body fat levels.
A certain amount of body fat is necessary for everyone. Experts say that percent body fat for women should be about 20 percent, 15 percent for men. Women with more than 30 percent fat and men with more than 25 percent fat are considered obese.
How much of your weight is fat can be assessed by a variety of methods including underwater
(hydrostatic) weighing, skinfold thickness measurements and circumference measurements. Each requires a specially trained person to administer the test and perform the correct calculations.
From the numbers obtained, a body fat percentage is determined. Assessing body composition has an advantage over the standard height-weight tables because it can help distinguish between
"overweight" and "overfat."
An easy self-test you can do is to pinch the thickness of the fat folds at your waist and abdomen. If you can pinch an inch or more of fat (make sure no muscle is included) chances are you have too much body fat.
People who exercise appropriately increase lean body mass while decreasing their overall fat level. Depending on the amount of fat loss, this can result in a loss of inches without a loss of weight, since muscle weighs more than fat. However, with the proper combination of diet and exercise, both body fat and overall weight can be reduced.

FROM: http://health-vip.cn/archives/articals/102.htm

Exercise and Weight Control

Just about everybody seems to be interested in weight control. Some of us weigh just the right amount, others need to gain a few pounds. Most of us "battle the bulge" at some time in our life.
Whatever our goals, we should understand and take advantage of the important role of exercise in keeping our weight under control.
Carrying around too much body fat is a major nuisance. Yet excess body fat is common in modern-day living. Few of today's occupations require vigorous physical activity, and much of our leisure time is spent in sedentary pursuits.
Recent estimates indicate that 34 million adults are considered obese (20 percent above desirable weight). Also, there has been an increase in body fat levels in children and youth over the past 20 years. After infancy and early childhood, the earlier the onset of obesity, the greater the likelihood of remaining obese.
Excess body fat has been linked to such health problems as coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, diabetes, arthritis and certain forms of cancer. Some evidence now exists showing that obesity has a negative effect on both health and longevity.
Exercise is associated with the loss of body fat in both obese and normal weight persons. A regular program of exercise is an important component of any plan to help individuals lose, gain or maintain their weight.

From:http://health-vip.cn/archives/articals/101.htm

Live Streaming Radio Sponsorship and Advertisement

Learn how to develop a monetized traffic market by having your website advertised via a live radio station.

Live online radio stations have become the newest broadcasting hit in the modern world. Many people tune into live streaming radio stations while at work, while working out, or while relaxing. The radio stations on the internet feature all of the latest music such as Hip Hop, Rap, Country, Rock, Metal, Techno, etc. Now imagine how many people are tuned into these online streaming stations. The popular ones probably have, well at least a thousand possibly. Imagine getting your company’s name into those live stations. To have your company advertised on a radio station attracts not only a lot of traffic, but a lot of attention.

If you were to pay a small fee, or maybe design an online radio station’s website, they would most likely offer to broadcast you over the airwaves. Realistically, there are hundreds upon hundreds of stations on the net that are heavily visited. One of these stations is known as DigitallyImported.FM, the world’s biggest online trance/techno station. By getting an ad placed on one of these radio station’s live broadcast wave, your website’s traffic will increase, tremendously.

Now, switching sides, say you were planning to open up your own live radio station. What is the best way to monetize your service? Offer paid advertisement. Let us face it, by offering to broadcast the name of a website over the waves, people will pay big money. Why would they pay? They know that if broadcasted, people who are tuning in my go, wow, if this radio station is this good, and they are recommending we check out this website, then we should. That is the mindset of the average listener.

The monetization of a live station consists all on the advertisement of websites during broadcast. Some radio stations may be broadcasting techno, so if you were a owner of a techno/rave night club in L.A., you may go hey, I could probably attract some business to my night club by having them broadcast my club’s location. In turn, the radio station would receive a good amount of money for saying those few words, profit to the max.

Dj’s or music producers would also be given the opportunity to advertise themselves in their own niche environment. If the music is that good, the listener could become an immediate consumer. They may be interested to buy the “new” CD track from this DJ. Making music tracks over the computer and broadcasting them can be a huge source of income for music producers. Create your music, play it in its niche environment, and see all those listeners become so interested that they want to purchase the CD. How would they purchase it? On the internet. What does this do? A) Increase traffic size, B) Maximize profits. There is a lot of monetary value to gain with online broadcasting, whether you are being advertised or are advertising, it’s a win-win situation for both sides.

Using Social Media and Linkbait to Build Brand Awareness

Social media is one of the hottest and newest ways to raise awareness of products and services that you offer. Social media refers to websites or services that allow users to distribute quality content.

The benefits of utilizing social media are huge. First, influencers (bloggers, journalists, and evidently, prospective customers) are always seeking out social media for ideas and inspiration. I speak from experience when I say that I've ventured onto social media sites to give myself something to write about. Sometimes, I'm writing because I want to offer a criticism or approval about a particular incident in the news. Social media brings issues that interest a wide variety of people and helps generate (and perpetuate) buzz. Second, once these links are built, your name gets out and people start to talk about you. You'll then generate publicity. In most cases, it's going to be good publicity (and really, there's no such thing as bad publicity).

In this article, I'm going to talk about two means of bringing your content to the social media crowds: social news and social bookmarking.

Social news sites are sites that allow you to vote upon stories that may be relevant to a particular topic or category. While not necessarily "newsy" in nature, social news sites include Digg, Mixx, Reddit, and Propeller. Most of the stories feature "breaking" news in addition to a healthy mix of videos, photos, and informative lists.

Social bookmarking sites are sites that utilize tagging to share content with the outside world. Two prevalent examples are del.icio.us and StumbleUpon. Additional "bookmarking" sites include Flickr and YouTube (which both utilize tagging. Social news site Mixx, additionally, features tags).

How do you effectively leverage social media? To put it this way, your plain old press release or about page won't cut it. Social media means that people want to talk about it. Unless your "about page" contains ridiculously juicy information that everyone MUST read, it's not useful to the social media crowd. Therefore, you need to create some compelling content that works well for a lot of people.

Examples of these include:

1. Lists: top 10 lists are always great. Why? They're short, sweet, and easily digestible. Today, everyone is so active in social media and multitaskes so much that nobody is settling only on one article. When you Digg a story or StumbleUpon a page, you typically aren't going to be there for long since you'll move on to the next thing. Of course, if you're looking to engage your customers, it's important to bring some brand awareness or relate the social media campaign to your product.
2. Humor: Do something funny. Turn something into a comic or video related to your product. If you're selling blue widgets, take a video of how people have used blue widgets in unconventional ways (wearing it as a hat, whatever th case may be). Make it memorable.
3. News: Break a story. You may not have the resources to do this, but if you do, you can get some killer bait up for the world to see.
4. Tools: Offer something useful to your readers for free. That will increase visitor loyalty and awareness of your offerings.
5. Photos: Let's face it. Photos are always excellent for this kind of campaign. Fortunately, sites like Flickr have so many photos under a Creative Commons license (which means that you can use the photographs in your own work but should attribute them to the original artist) that you can put in your own social media campaign. Why not post content to a user generated content site from content used from a user generated content site? It's flattering.

These are only five ways (of many) to really bring people to your website. If the content is great (and you should study each social site to see which content is better received than others), you can apply this method again and again and really build some serious awareness about your offerings that these influencers can't resist blogging about and eventually signing up for or buying.

In another article, I will explain how you should network effectively on social media sites. As a primer, it's not just about asking friends for votes and building link exchanges. There's a lot more that is required of a solid social media contributor. Fortunately, I'm a top user on Digg and have spent a very large chunk of time learning the ins and outs of the network. I'll be happy to share them with you.

What are your favorite pieces of social media linkbait?

State of the Medical Reinsurance Market 2/2

(Continue my last post, http://health-vip.cn/archives/articals/99.htm… … )

4. How would moral hazard4 be minimized?
If reimbursement is based on actual amounts paid by insurers and self-funded plans, the payers probablywould alter certain behaviors (e.g. provider contracts, cost-saving measures) as they will no longer beresponsible for the catastrophic costs associated with individuals or groups covered by reinsurance.
Options to mitigate this effect (known as moral hazard), to varying degrees, include:
Ø Reimbursing payers based on government-defined nominal costs per service (e.g. Medicare feefor service payable amount)
Ø Requiring a coinsurance amount from payers, thereby keeping a portion of the catastrophic claimsas the payers’ responsibility
Ø Reimbursing payers based on a risk adjuster or other predictive model, similar to the CMS-HCC  (Hierarchical Condition Category) model Requiring payers to have in place cost-containment measures, such as disease management, inorder to participate in the pool.

5. Addressing geographic cost factors, such as Medicare geographic cost factors.
If a reinsurance program is created on a federal level, geographic cost differentials may result in different
"subsidies" for different geographic areas of the country. Because health care costs are high in some partsof the country (due to both cost per unit differences and utilization differences), a fixed attachment pointcould result in insurers in low-cost areas subsidizing insurers in high-cost areas. Ways to mitigate thispotential problem include:
Ø Adjusting the "national-average" attachment point based on Medicare geographic cost factors
Ø To the extent that the program is financed by assessing participating insurers, calculating theassessment on a statewide or regional basis, rather than across the entire federal program.

6. How should the accumulation period be defined?
Most reinsurance arrangements are based on one year's claims, but it must be determined how this isdefined. Options include:
Ø Reimbursing payers on a “paid-claims” basis, that is, based on all claims paid by the insurerduring the year
Ø Reimbursing payers on an “incurred-claims” basis, that is, all claims for services received by theinsured (and thus incurred by the payer) during the year.

7. What types of services are eligible for reimbursement?
Different insurance plans will have different benefit packages, covering different services. In addition,some benefit packages will be more generous than others. As a result, it is important to define whatservices are eligible for reimbursement under the reinsurance program. Options include:
Ø Medicare/CMS reimbursement policy
Ø Reimbursement based on the underlying insurance plan.

8. Other considerations:
Ø How would the reinsurance program be administered? Through a government agency? Throughthe states? Through private reinsurers? Through a partnership or combination of public andprivate entities?
Ø Would premiums from insurers and self-funded plans be required for participation in thereinsurance program? If so, how should these premiums be determined?

End. (http://health-vip.cn/archives/articals/100.htm)

State of the Medical Reinsurance Market 1/2

Many health plans and self-funded employer plans are large enough to manage effectively their owncatastrophic risk, and therefore usually choose not to purchase commercial reinsurance. As a result, thecurrent reinsurance market is fairly small compared with the health insurance market as a whole.
Nevertheless, reinsurers have significant amounts of available capital and large enough risk pools tohandle claim variability.
Under "true" reinsurance, risk protection is purchased by insurers for very large (catastrophic) claims.
Insurers can almost always purchase reinsurance with annual limits of up to $5 million, and with limits upto $10 million sometimes available.
Under "stop-loss" insurance, insurance is purchased by self-funded employers to cover the risk of largeclaims. Attachment points (per claim deductible) range from $10,000 to $500,000, with most fallingbetween $25,000 and $250,000. Self-funded employers can almost always purchase stop loss with annuallimits of up to $5 million. Higher limits are available, but are not always easy to obtain.
Issues for Consideration
Many issues need to be considered when designing a government reinsurance program. How theseissues are addressed could affect how the program is implemented as well as its ultimate costs.

1. Would participation in the reinsurance program be voluntary or mandatory?
A program could be voluntary or mandatory. If the program was made voluntary, it would need to bedetermined what level the decision would be made on. There are several choices:
Ø Insurer level—Under this option, insurers who opt to participate in the reinsurance program wouldbe required to do so for all of their health plans, not just select groups.Employer group level—Under this option, insurers could determine to enroll employer group planson a case-by-case basis, enrolling some groups, but not others.
Ø Individual employee level—Under this option, insurers could determine to enroll particularemployees (and any dependents) on a case-by-case basis, enrolling some employees, but notothers.
Ø Individual insured level—Under this option, insurers could determine to enroll particular insuredson a case-by-case basis. This differs from the employee level above, because the insurer couldchoose to reinsure only a dependent, but not the employee.
If participation in the program was mandatory, it could apply to:
Ø All health plans
Ø All self-insured health plans
Ø All health plans, excluding those that are self-insured
Ø All health plans with less than some fixed number of members
Ø Some other subset of health plans

2. What issues should be taken into account for a reinsurance program at the state level, the federal level,or for a program that has both state and federal elements?
Issues that would need to be considered include the interplay of state regulations and ERISA with thereinsurance program, how current state high-risk pools and other state reinsurance programs would beimpacted, issues unique to multi-state employers, and the desirability of uniform benefits and procedures.

3. Will the attachment point be increased over time, and if so how?
The cost of a reinsurance program would increase at a rate faster than underlying medical trend due to theleveraging effect of a fixed attachment point. That is, costs of the program would increase not onlybecause underlying medical costs would increase, but also because more claims would exceed theattachment point. Over time, this leveraging effect would increase the costs of the program substantially,and therefore, the costs to the government in a government-sponsored program would also increase.
Options to mitigate this effect include increasing the attachment point annually by the increase in the
Medical Consumer Price Index, the increase in health spending, or some other measure of health costincreases.
(To be continued… … )

From http://health-vip.cn/archives/articals/99.htm